Cramps Drummer Nick Knox Dies at 60

Nick Knox, drummer with the Cramps from 1977 until 1991, has died at the age of 60, multiple sources confirmed. He was the band’s longest-serving drummer and appeared on their first four albums including 1986’s A Date With Elvis.

Knox played in the proto-punk band the Electric Eels before joining Lux Interior and Poison Ivy Rorschach in the Cramps. They were mainstays of New York's CBGB scene alongside the Ramones, Television and others. A Date With Elvis – the title a play on Elvis Presley's 1959 album of the same name – was the band's most commercially successful album. It followed 1980's Songs the Lord Taught Us and 1981 follow-up Psychedelic Jungle. Knox appeared on their fourth release, 1990's Stay Sick! before his departure.

Among those paying tribute was Miriam Linna, the Cramps’ previous drummer. In a long Facebook post during which she recalled moments from their four-decade friendship, she said she’d recently visited Knox in an intensive care unit in Cleveland. She reported that they’d reconnected in 2017, during her own illness, and made a point of speaking on the phone every day, noting, “I looked forward to the daily check up calls, and I soon realized that he needed the pep talks as well.” She added, “I thank God that Nicky was a friend of mine. He was one of the kindest, funniest, most amazing human beings ever and I was very lucky to have been in his orbit.”

Former guitarist Kid Congo Powers tweeted, “Nick Knox Coolest of the cool. R.I.P. Glad to have played to your boss Beat. Meet you on the mystery plane.”